MEotW: Zhōngguó

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• Zhōngguó

How has the worldly nation of China long viewed itself?

The earliest known appearance of “Zhōngguó (中國)”, inscribed on the Western Zhōu bronze vessel Hé Zūn

“To Jehovah, for whom ‘a thousand years is as one day’, Chinese civilization has only been around for a few days.…

“…we should boast in Jehovah, not in needlessly and self-indulgently complex knowledge relating to a mere worldly human culture” https://t.co/emXNAng9W2#MEotW pic.twitter.com/xEjlDPAkud

— tiandi, Links News (@TiandiLinksNews) June 9, 2024

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MEotW: jiǎntǐ‐zì

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• jiǎntǐ‐zì

While they are simpler than traditional Chinese characters, why are the official simplified characters at best a compromise?

“爱” is the Simplified Chinese character for “love”. It’s simpler, but omits the “heart” radical (“心”), and has been “friend” (“友”)-zoned. 💔

— Troubadour WW (@troubadourww) February 20, 2017

“Ài” is how Pīnyīn represents “love”. It doesn’t play the games the characters play—it helps you actually say “I love you” (“Wǒ ài nǐ”). ❤️

— Troubadour WW (@troubadourww) February 20, 2017

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MEotW: Hànzì

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• Hànzì

In the big picture, how should we Mandarin field language learners view Chinese characters?

(The above picture is from near the beginning of the book The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy, by John DeFrancis.)

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MEotW: zìmǎn

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• zìmǎn

How can pondering the Needham Question help us in the Mandarin field?

“Never, never, never in this office say, ‘But we’ve always done it that way.’”
—Admiral Grace Hopper, computer programming pioneer

Re writing Mandarin with Chinese characters, many say, “But we’ve always done it that way.”

However, as _Lǔ Xùn_ asked, does that make it right? pic.twitter.com/eFCN6fPYtY

— Troubadour WW (@troubadourww) September 10, 2024

Chinese characters are the punched cards of writing systems. Punched cards were not totally impossible to use, but there are now much better and easier-to-use ways to control computers.
 BinaryApe

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MEotW: chuīxū

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• chuīxū

Might Chinese characters present a test for Mandarin field language learners? If so, what might they test?

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MEotW: jiàoyù

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• jiàoyù

Why should Mandarin field language learners be wary of what the world’s education system teaches people about Chinese characters?

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MEotW: gāo’ào

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• gāo’ào

How did the Pharaoh that Moses and Aaron dealt with prove himself to be a bozo? How have many Chinese scholars acted similarly?

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MEotW: kǒngbù huódòng

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• kǒngbù huódòng

What are some of the ways in which the Mandarin equivalents of various English -isms are constructed?

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MEotW: rénkǒu

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• rénkǒu

Does traditional Chinese culture feed its people or “eat” them?

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MEotW: jiǎntǐ zì

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• 
• jiǎntǐ zì

Are simplified Chinese characters the ultimate writing system for Mandarin and the other Chinese languages?

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MEotW: Hànzì

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• 
• Hànzì

What is the Korean connection? Do the Chinese languages need to be written using the extraordinarily complex Chinese characters? Will we be tourists or missionaries?

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MEotW: Zhōngguó

The Mandarin Expression of the Week is:

• 
• Zhōngguó

Does China consider itself the middling, average, unremarkable “Middle Kingdom”? Or is it a nation that actually calls itself the centre of the world?

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